1. When NASA began launching astronauts into space, they found out that the astronauts' pens wouldn't work at zero gravity (ink wouldn't flow down to the writing surface). It took them one decade and $12 million to solve this problem. They developed a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on practically any surface including crystal, and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to over 300 degrees C.

And what did the Russians do? The Russians used a pencil.

2. One of the most memorable case studies on Japanese management techniques was the case of the empty soap box, which occurred in one of Japan's biggest cosmetics companies.

The company received a complaint that a consumer had bought a soap box that was empty. Immediately the authorities isolated the problem to the assembly line,which transported all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soap box went through the assembly line empty.

Management asked its engineers to solve the problem. Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors manned by two people to watch all the soap boxes that passed through the line, to make sure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast but they spent whoopee amount of time and money to do so.

But when a rank-and-file employee in a small company was posed with the same problem, he did not get into the complications of X-rays, etc. but instead came out with another solution. He bought a strong industrial electric fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan on, and as each soap box passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line.

3. A 50 feet long trailer having 48" wheels got stuck while entering a midtown tunnel in New York because it was approximately 2.5 feet taller than the height of the tunnel. The fire department and the state department of transportation spent the whole day searching for a solution, to no avail.

Then a child, aged about 9 years, asked his father, "Why can't they take out the air from the tyre tubes? The height will automatically come down."

Moral: Always look for simple solutions. And learn to focus on solutions, not on problems.

10 friends lived together on top of a 100-storied building. Once when they returned after an outing, they found, to their dismay that the lift was not working. Having no alternative, they decided to lighten the arduous climb by narrating a humorous story each. By the time it was the turn of the last person, they had almost reached the top floor. The tenth person said, "I am sorry, but my story is really tragic. Hearing it, will break your hearts to pieces. It's only a one-line story though -I have forgotten the key downstairs!"

Right from our early childhood, it's drilled into us that the way to becoming happy is to make it big in life. And accordingly, we roll back our sleeves and get down to work. Slowly, painfully we struggle up the ladder of material success. School, SSC, HSC, Engg/Medical, MBA/MS, Project Leader, Manager, Managing Director, CEO... The dream career growth chart. Assuming that one succeeds (a big assumption), what next?

Just take a look at the life of any of the supposedly successful people around you. Big money, big cars, big houses. And big enemies, big underworld dons, big tensions, big terrors! But wasn't happiness their goal when they started off? What went wrong?

This is a story which we all can relate to, isn't it?...

Just as the ten friends forgot about the key while hearing anecdotes, the modern man also forgets the goal of happiness while working hard for achieving his goals. He gets so caught up in the struggle for success (or at least survival) that he forgets that he is not getting any happiness. And it goes on till the 100th floor: death. "I forgot the key to happiness. I foamed and fumed in vain." But by then, it's too late.

Let's look at our own lives. Till whatever rung we have climbed on "The ladder of success", have we become happy? No matter how much we achieve, happiness eludes us. "Its just one step away", but that's the way it always stays, no matter how many steps we take. But an intelligent person will think, "Just a minute, what am I running after?"

Think about your true well being. Get serious, before it gets too late!!